UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 

IN 

AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY   AND    ETHNOLOGY 

Vol.  7  No.  2 


RECENT    INVESTIGATIONS    BEARING    ON 
THE  QUESTION  OF  THE  OCCURRENCE 
OF  NEOCENE  MAN   IN  THE  AURIF- 
EROUS GRAVELS  OF  THE 
SIERRA   NEVADA 


BY 

WM.   J.    SINCLAIR 


BERKELEY 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

FEBRUARY,  1908 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
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UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 


AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY   AND     ETHNOLOGY 
VOL.   7  NO.   2 


RECENT    INVESTIGATIONS    BEARING    ON 
THE   QUESTION  OF  THE  OCCURRENCE 
OF  NEOCENE  MAN  IN  THE  AURIF- 
EROUS  GRAVELS   OF  THE 
SIERRA  NEVADA 

BY 

WM.  J.  SINCLAIR. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
Introduction    108 

Evidence  Favoring  the  Occurrence  of  Human  Remains  in  the  Gravels....  109 

Human  Remains  from  Hydraulic  Mines  110 

Human  Remains  in  Place  in  Undisturbed  Gravels 110 

Human  Remains  from  Drift  Mines 110 

Review  of  the  Evidence  in  Detail  110 

Human  Remains  from  Gold  Springs,  Kincaid  Flat,  and  Shaw's  Flat  111 

Human  Relics  from  Murphys  113 

The  King  Pestle  113 

Human  Relics  from  the  Table  Mountain  Drift  Mines  114 

The  Neale  Discoveries  117 

The  McTarnahan  Mortar  120 

Implements  from  the  Marshall  Mine  121 

The  Clay  Hill  Skeleton  122 

The  Calaveras  Skull  123 

Negative  Evidence  of  a  General  Character  129 

Conclusions   130 

Principal   Papers  on  the  Occurrence  of   Early  Man  in  the  Auriferous 
Gravels  of  California  ..  ..  131 


108          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Etlm.     [Vol.  7 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  question  of  the  early  existence  of  man  in  California,  and 
of  the  occurrence  of  his  remains  in  the  gold-bearing  gravels  be- 
neath the  lava  flows  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
originated  from  the  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  California 
under  Professor  J.  D.  Whitney.  A  large  part  of  the  evidence  on 
which  the  affirmative  view  is  based  is  presented  in  Whitney's 
memoir  on  the  auriferous  gravels.1  Several  writers  have  con- 
tributed to  the  discussion  since  the  publication  of  that  work,  but 
a  comparatively  small  amount  of  geological  evidence  has  been 
presented  either  for  or  against  specific  instances  of  man's  occur- 
rence in  these  deposits. 

In  working  on  the  general  problem  of  the  time  of  man's 
appearance  in  the  Californian  region,  the  Department  of  Anthro- 
pology of  the  University  of  California  has  taken  up,  as  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  investigation,  a  review  of  the  evidence  relating 
to  the  so-called  auriferous  gravel  relics.  The  writer  was  com- 
missioned to  visit  the  localities  where  the  discoveries  of  human 
remains  reported  by  Whitney  and  others  were  made,  and  to  com- 
pare the  geological  conditions  found  there  with  such  intrinsic 
evidence  as  is  presented  by  the  artifacts  and  bones  preserved. 
Several  months  were  spent  during  the  summer  of  1902  in  study- 
ing the  various  occurrences  of  auriferous  gravels  in  Tuolumne, 
Calaveras,  and  Eldorado  counties,  which  comprise  the  majority 
of  the  classic  localities  where  human  remains  are  said  to  have 
been  discovered.  Though  the  results  of  the  writer's  work  are 
largely  of  a  negative  character,  it  is  considered  advisable  to  pre- 
sent them  as  a  portion  of  the  general  report  on  the  studies  on  the 
antiquity  of  man  in  this  region  now  being  carried  on  by  the 
department. 

The  excellent  maps  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 
render  any  general  discussion  of  the  distribution  and  stratigraphy 
of  the  gold-bearing  gravels  unnecessary.  As  pointed  out  by 
Lindgren,2  the  gravels  mapped  as  Neocene  by  the  survey,  on  the 


1  The  Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  California.     Mem.  Har- 
vard Mus.  Comp.  Zool.  Vol.  VI,  1880. 

2  U.  S.  Geol.  Atlas,  Coif  ax  Folio,  Descriptive  Text. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       109 

atlas  sheets  of  the  California  gold  belt,  are  of  several  quite  dis- 
tinct ages  with  reference  to  the  rhyolitic  and  andesitic  lava  flows. 
"The  auriferous  gravels  proper  may  be  divided  into  (1)  the  deep 
gravels,  (2)  the  bench  gravels,  (3)  the  gravels  of  the  rhyolitic 
epoch,  (4)  the  gravels  of  the  intervolcanic  erosion  epoch,  (5)  the 
gravels  of  the  andesitic  tuff. ' '  The  bench  gravels  ' '  often  contain 
a  predominating  amount  of  quartz  pebbles,  but  no  andesite  or 
rhyolite. "  Those  of  the  intervolcanic  erosion  epoch  "contain 
pebbles  of  the  Bed-rock  series  and  of  andesite  and  rhyolite."3 
To  these  may  be  added  a  sixth  division,  the  post-andesitic  stream 
gravels  which  contain  pebbles  of  the  Bed-rock  series  and  of  all 
the  lavas — rhyolite,  andesite,  and  latite. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  Whitney,  while  recognizing  that  the 
gravels  described  by  him  differed  in  age  and  in  their  relation  to 
the  intercalated  volcanic  flows,  made  no  attempt  to  specify  from 
which  gravel  the  human  remains  reported  by  him  were  obtained, 
grouping  all  under  the  general  term  auriferous  gravels.  Some 
such  division  of  the  gravels  as  that  proposed  by  Lindgren  must 
be  kept  in  mind  in  the  treatment  of  the  question  of  man's  occur- 
rence in  these  deposits.  The  lithological  characters  of  the  gravels 
are  important  in  a  discussion  of  the  rock  types  represented  in  the 
various  implements  reported  from  them. 

In  examining  the  region  the  writer  studied  the  majority  of 
the  classic  localities  mentioned  by  Whitney  and  others.  Little 
could  be  gained  by  attempting  an  investigation  of  all  the  local- 
ities, as  in  most  cases  the  description  is  given  in  such  general 
terms  that  an  identification  of  the  exact  localities  is  impossible. 
This  is  particularly  applicable  to  regions  of  hydraulic  mining. 

EVIDENCE  FAVORING  THE  OCCURRENCE  OF  HUMAN  REMAINS  IN 

THE  GRAVELS. 

The  evidence  favoring  the  occurrence  of  man  in  the  auriferous 
gravels  may  be  subdivided  into  three  classes:  (1)  human  remains 
reported  from  hydraulic  mines;  (2)  human  remains  found  in 
place  in  undisturbed  gravel;  (3)  human  remains  from  drift 
mines. 


*  Lindgren,  loc.  cit. 


110          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

Human  Remains  from  Hydraulic  Mines. — Various  stone  relics 
are  said  by  Whitney  to  have  been  found  in  placer  mines  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  gravel  region.  Several  of  these  implements 
are  said  to  have  been  associated  with  bones  of  the  mastodon  and 
other  extinct  vertebrates.  Most  of  them  were  found  at  consid- 
erable depths  and  in  one  or  more  instances  are  said  to  have  been 
covered  by  a  deposit  of  calcareous  tufa  several  feet  thick. 

Human  Remains  in  Place  in  Undisturbed  Gravel. — A  broken 
pestle  was  found  by  Clarence  King,  the  geologist,  in  1869,  in  place 
in  a  gravel  bank  exposed  by  a  recent  wash,  close  beneath  the 
latite  cap  of  Table  Mountain  in  Tuolumne  County.  The  imple- 
ment was  firmly  imbedded  and  when  dislodged  left  the  impression 
of  its  shape  in  the  gravel  matrix. 

Human  Remains  from  Drift  Mines. — There  is  a  large  amount 
of  evidence  based  on  the  reported  occurrence  of  human  remains 
in  the  gravels  buried  beneath  the  basaltic,  andesitic,  and  rhyo- 
litic  lava  flows.  These  gravels  are  reached  by  vertical  shafts  and 
by  horizontal  and  inclined  tunnels  termed  drifts.  The  published 
evidence  consists  of  statements  and  affidavits  by  persons  who  were 
either  operating  the  mines  and  made  the  discoveries,  or  who  were 
more  or  less  cognizant  of  the  facts  in  the  case  at  the  time  when  the 
relics  were  found.  The  relics  recovered  and  preserved  consist  of 
stone  implements  and  human  bones.  To  one  of  the  latter  finds, 
the  so-called  Calaveras  skull,  great  interest  attaches  because  the 
bone  has  lost  its  organic  material  and  has  taken  on  the  appearance 
of  a  true  fossil.  It  has  been  claimed  that  the  matrix  investing  the 
skull  is  of  the  same  character  as  the  gravel  of  the  mine  where  the 
specimen  was  found. 

REVIEW  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  IN  DETAIL. 

The  vast  majority  of  occurrences  reported  from  placer  mines 
can  no  longer  be  verified.  In  addition  to  the  confusion  arising 
from  lack  of  classification  as  to  age  of  beds  involved,  Professor 
W.  H.  Holmes4  has  shown  that  there  is  a  strong  probability  that 
a  large  proportion,  if  not  all,  of  the  stone  implements  reported 


4  Keview  of  the  Evidence  Relating  to  Auriferous  Gravel  Man  in  Califor- 
nia. Am.  Anthropologist  Jan.  and  Oct.,  1899;  Smithsonian  Kept,  for  1899,, 
pp.  419-472,  Plates  1-16,  Washington,  1901. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       Ill 

from  gravels  worked  by  the  hydraulic  method  have  fallen  into  the 
mine  from  recent  Indian  village  sites  situated  on  bluffs  above  the 
mine  pits,  owing  to  the  recession  of  the  gravel  bank  under  the 
attack  of  the  hydraulic  giant.  There  should  also  be  kept  in  mind 
the  possibility  of  accidental  burial  in  the  flood  plain  of  a  recent 
stream  working  over  gravels  of  all  ages.  Wood's  Creek  near 
Jamestown  may  be  taken  as  an  example,  from  which  Whitney 
reports  implements  at  depths  of  from  twenty  to  forty  feet. 

Human  Remains  from  Gold  Springs,  Kinkaid  Flat,  and 
Shaw's  Flat. — Whitney  reports  a  number  of  implements  from 
these  localities.  Of  these,  the  following  from  the  Voy  collection 
preserved  in  the  museum  of  the  University  of  California  may  be 
mentioned : 

(a)  Original  No.  125  Voy  coll.     (1-4205.)*    A  mortar  with 
diagonal  groovings  said  to  have  been  found  in  1863,  "near  other 
relics  and  animal  remains  imbedded  in  auriferous  gravel  mixed 
with  calcareous  tufa,  at  a  depth  of  about  sixteen  feet  beneath  the 
surface"  in  the  vicinity  of  Gold  Springs.     The  material  of  this 
mortar  is  a  pinkish  hornblende  andesite. 

( b )  Orig.  No.  139  Voy  coll.     ( 1-4197. )     An  oval  dish  or  meal- 
ing stone  of  hornblende  andesite,  said  to  have  been  found  in  1862 
in  Gold  Spring  Gulch,  Tuolumne  County,  "in  auriferous  gravel 
beneath  an   accumulation   of  about  twenty  feet  of  calcareous 
tufa." 

(c)  Orig.  No.  16  Voy  coll.    (1-4204AB.)    A  mortar  and  pestle 
said  to  have  been  found  in  1863,  associated  with  other  stone  relics 
and  bones  of  the  mastodon,  etc.,  in  auriferous  gravel  about  sixteen 
feet  below  the  surface,  in  Gold  Springs  Gulch.    The  mortar  is  of 
hornblende  andesite. 

(d)  Orig.  No.  10  Voy  coll.f     A  mortar  of  diorite  porphyry 
said  to  have  been  found  at  Shaw's  Flat  in  1863,  in  auriferous 
gravel  about  fourteen  feet  below  the  surface. 

"Referred  to  by  Whitney,  Aurif.  Grav.  p.  263,  figured  by  Holmes,  loc. 
cit.  Am.  Anth.  PI.  VI. 

*  The  numbers  in  parentheses  are  the  catalogue  numbers  of  the  Museum 
of  the  Department  of  Anthropology  of  the  University  of  California.  The 
original  Voy  numbers  have  been  employed  in  this  paper  since  they  have 
already  been  cited  by  other  authors. 

6  Referred  to  by  Whitney,  Aurif.  Grav.  p.  263,  figured  by  Holmes,  loc. 
cit.  Am.  Anth.  PI.  VI. 

t  This  specimen  has  not  been  located  in  the  Museum. 


112          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

(e)  Orig.  No.  97  Voy  coll.  (1-4208AB.)  A  mortar  of  pinkish 
hornblende  andesite,  and  a  pestle  of  amphibolite  schist,  said  to 
have  been  found  in  1861  in  auriferous  gravel  at  a  depth  of  sixteen 
feet,  at  Kincaid  Flat. 

The  gravels  at  Springfield  and  Columbia,  which  are  also  given 
as  localities  affording  human  remains,  are  similar  to  those  at 
Gold  Springs,  Shaw 's  Flat,  and  Kincaid  Flat,  and  one  description 
will  apply  to  all.  Usually  they  are  not  well-worn  stream-washed 
pebbles  like  those  characterizing  the  Neocene  channels,  but  sub- 
angular  fragments  largely  of  vein  quartz  or  quartzite.  The 
underlying  Carboniferous  lime-stone  has  been  eroded  into  fantas- 
tic shapes  by  percolating  waters  during  or  after  the  deposition  of 
the  auriferous  wash.  The  mammalian  fauna  listed  by  Whitney 
from  these  localities  (mastodon,  elephant,  bison,  and  the  horse  E. 
occidentalis)  indicates  a  Pleistocene  age  for  at  least  a  part  of  the 
deposit,  although  some  of  it  is  certainly  older.  In  a  limestone 
region  with  underground  drainage,  it  is  quite  apparent  that  im- 
plements of  human  manufacture  which  happened  to  be  scattered 
on  the  surface  would  stand  an  excellent  chance  of  reaching  deeper 
levels  through  the  many  sink  holes  affording  drainage  ways  to 
surface  waters.  That  this  is  true  for  some  of  the  animal  remains 
is  shown  by  Leidy's8  identification  of  teeth  of  the  recent  horse 
from  depths  of  twenty-five  and  twenty-nine  feet  in  the  gravels  at 
Kincaid  Flat.  Before  mining  was  begun,  these  flats  were  covered 
with  a  growth  of  oaks  and  were  probably  advantageous  village 
sites. 

The  calcareous  tufas  on  the  Grant  ranch  at  Gold  Springs  are 
all  of  Pleistocene  or  recent  origin.  They  have  been  deposited  by 
large  springs,  one  of  which  has  at  present  a  steady  discharge  of 
fifty  miner's  inches.  The  tufa  deposit  conforms  to  the  drainage 
slopes  possessed  by  the  present  topography.  It  is  sometimes  fine 
and  powdery,  but  may  assume  a  radiate  crystalline  and  a  shelly 
facies.  Intercalated  with  and  underlying  the  tufa  are  shallow 
deposits  of  subangular  gravels  which  have  been  worked  for  gold. 
These  gravels  appear  to  have  been  formed  by  the  waters  from  the 


7  Eef  erred  to  by  Whitney,  Aurif .  Grav.  p.  263,  figured  by  Holmes,  loc. 
cit.  Am.  Anth.  PI.  VI. 

8  Aurif.  Grav.  p.  257. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada,       113 

same  springs  which  deposited  the  tufas.  There  is  no  available 
means  for  determining  the  rate  of  accumulation  of  these  deposits. 
The  springs  have  shifted  their  points  of  discharge  since  the  tufas 
were  formed  and  are  not  now  depositing  this  substance  at  a  rapid 
rate.  It  is  of  course  impossible  to  determine  the  nature  of  the 
association  of  the  implements  with  these  tufas  and  gravels,  or  to 
locate  the  place  where  they  were  found.  The  only  available  in- 
formation is  that  conveyed  by  Whitney  and  by  the  labels  on  Voy  's 
collection.  It  is  known  however  that  Voy  obtained  his  specimens 
from  this  localit}7"  at  second  hand,  from  persons  who  probably 
claimed  to  have  found  them  as  described. 

The  implements  from  these  localities  afford  no  inherent  evi- 
dence of  antiquity.  They  are  of  the  same  type  and  material  as 
those  found  on  old  Indian  sites. 

Human  Relics  from  Murphys. — The  detrital  material  filling 
crevices  in  the  limestone  in  the  vicinity  of  Murphys  is  also  a 
reputed  source  of  human  relics.  "While  some  of  this  material  is 
Pleistocene,  other  portions  are  recent  and  some  of  it  may  ante- 
date the  Pleistocene.  In  the  absence  of  detailed  information 
regarding  the  exact  localities  where  the  implements  were  found, 
these  occurrences  may  be  passed  without  further  comment. 

The  King  Pestle. — The  only  account  of  the  occurrence  of 
human  relics  in  the  gravels  which  has  gone  practically  unchal- 
lenged is  that  published  by  Dr.  Becker9  regarding  the  discovery 
by  Clarence  King  of  a  broken  pestle  in  the  andesitic  gravels  and 
sands  close  beneath  the  latite  cliff  of  Table  Mountain.  The  local- 
ity is  given  as  that  part  of  the  mountain  lying  a  couple  of  miles 
southwest  of  Tuttletown.  This  would  be  above  Rawhide.  The 
implement  was  dislodged  from  hard  gravel,  leaving  behind  a  cast 
of  its  shape  in  the  matrix.  The  relic  is  a  portion  of  a  pestle  of 
fine  grained  diabase,  the  end  highly  polished  by  wear  in  the 
hand.  As  a  geologist,  Mr.  King  was  a  reliable  observer  and  able 
to  determine  whether  or  not  the  implement  was  in  place  and 
formed  an  integral  part  of  the  mass  of  gravel  in  which  it  was 
imbedded.  Secondary  cementation  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
taken  into  consideration.  On  many  of  the  outcrops  of  andesitic 
sandstone  in  the  vicinity  of  this  locality,  secondary  cementation  is 


Bull.  Geol.  Soc,  Am.  Vol.  2,  p.  193. 


114          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

in  progress,  indurating  the  soft  sands  into  a  hard  rock  to  the 
depth  of  at  least  an  inch.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  matrix  con- 
taining the  impression  of  this  relic  was  not  preserved.  As  it  is, 
there  is  no  way  of  confirming  the  discovery.  We  have  nothing 
but  the  specimen  and  the  published  account  to  work  from.  An 
examination  of  the  locality  yielded  little  of  value  in  this  connec- 
tion. Immediately  beneath  the  latite  are  coarse  andesitic  breccias 
with  an  occasional  water-worn  pebble.  Farther  down  are  gravels 
and  sands.  Holmes10  reports  finding  "Digger"  mealing  stones 
scattered  over  the  slope. 

Human  Relics  from  the  Table  Mountain  Drift  Mines. — The 
following  occurrences  of  human  implements  and  bones  in  the 
gravels  pierced  by  deep  tunnels  extending  beneath  Table  Moun- 
tain are  mentioned  by  Whitney : 

(a)  A  human  jaw  and  a  stone  muller  in  the  collection  of  Dr. 
Snell.  Both  objects  are  said  to  have  been  taken  from  under  Table 
Mountain.  The  exact  localities  are  not  stated.  Both  have  prob- 
ably been,  long  since,  lost  or  destroyed. 

(6)  A  fragment  of  a  human  skull  from  the  Valentine  shaft 
on  the  Columbia  claim,  a  little  south  of  Shaw's  Flat.  Portions 
of  this  specimen  were  given  to  the  museums  of  the  Boston  Natural 
History  Society  and  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural 
Science.  The  specimen  is  said  to  have  come  from  a  depth  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet,  from  beneath  a  series  of  strata  compris- 
ing in  descending  order  surface  soil,  pipe  clay,  "cement"  with 
leaf  impressions  and  gravel.  It  was  taken  from  the  sluice  in 
which  gravel  from  the  mine  was  being  washed.  In  addition  to 
the  bone,  a  mortar  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  these  workings 
in  the  gravel. 

(c)  A  white  marble  bead  from  the  Sonora  tunnel.    The  speci- 
men was  taken  from  a  carload  of  gravel  coming  out  of  the  tunnel. 
When  found  it  is  said  to  have  been  incrusted  with  pyrite. 

(d)  A  mortar  from  the  Boston  tunnel,  found  by  Llewellyn 
Pierce. 

(e)  A  human  skeleton  from  a  tunnel  under  Table  Mountain. 
No  further  particulars  are  given. 

(/")  A  perforated  cutting  implement  and  several  stone  mor- 


10Loc.  cit.  Am.  Anth.,  p.  622. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       115 

tars  from  the  Stanislaus  Co.'s  claim  at  O'Byrns'  Ferry,  Tuol- 
umne  Co.  The  relics  were  found  ' '  from  sixty  to  seventy-five  feet 
from  the  surface  in  gravel,  under  the  basalt  and  about  300  feet 
in  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel." 

For  several  of  these  occurrences  there  are  absolutely  no  data 
on  which  to  base  an  investigation,  nor  any  attendant  circum- 
stances to  establish  their  validity  as  evidence.  The  relics  in  the 
Snell  collection  are  lost.  No  particulars  are  furnished  regarding 
the  skeleton.  The  implements  from  O'Byrns'  Ferry  have  not 
been  preserved.  The  geological  features  of  the  locality  are  essen- 
tially the  same  as  those  of  the  more  northerly  parts  of  Table 
Mountain. 

The  position  of  the  Valentine  shaft  was  sought  by  the  writer, 
but  without  success.  Regarding  the  possibility  of  an  external 
origin  for  the  objects  reported  from  this  shaft,  Whitney  says: 
"The  essential  facts  are,  that  the  Valentine  shaft  was  vertical, 
that  it  was  boarded  up  to  the  top,  so  that  nothing  could  have 
fallen  in  from  the  surface  during  the  working  under  ground, 
which  was  carried  on  in  the  gravel  channel  exclusively,  after  the 
shaft  had  been  sunk. ' '  In  this  connection  it  may  be  pointed  out 
that  many  of  the  old  drift  mines  south  of  Shaw 's  Flat  were  con- 
nected and  that  this  system  of  galleries  was  ventilated  by  air 
shafts,  so  that  the  possibilities  are  not  limited  to  one  shaft,  how- 
ever securely  that  one  may  have  been  boarded. 

The  Sonora  tunnel  is  an  incline  starting  in  andesitic  sands 
and  pipe  clay  beneath  the  latite  near  the  intersection  of  the  roads 
to  Tuttletown  and  to  Sonora  via  Shaw's  Flat.  It  is  said  to  con- 
nect with  some  of  the  deeper  workings  under  Table  Mountain. 
Little  dependence,  as  an  evidence  of  antiquity,  can  be  placed  on 
the  presence  of  pyrite  in  the  hollow  of  the  marble  bead  reported 
by  Whitney  from  the  gravels  of  this  mine.  The  rapidity  with 
which  secondary  pyrite  forms  is  well  known.  Calcium  carbonate 
might  act  as  a  precipitating  agent  in  salts  of  iron  dissolved  in  the 
mine  water. 

The  relics  from  the  Valentine  shaft  and  Sonora  tunnel  were 
not  found  in  place  in  undisturbed  gravel,  but  were  taken  in  one 
case  from  the  sluice  in  which  gravel  was  being  washed,  and  in 
the  other  from  gravel  brought  out  in  the  car.  If  this  degree  of 


116          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

association  with  the  gravel  is  to  be  accepted  as  proof  of  antiquity, 
we  would  be  justified  in  supposing  that  any  object  of  recent 
manufacture  acquired  under  similar  circumstances  was  as  old  as 
the  gravels.  Neither  of  these  occurrences  can  be  accepted  as  a 
valid  proof  of  the  antiquity  of  man. 

Perhaps  more  importance  has  been  attached  to  the  mortar 
vouched  for  by  Llewellyn  Pierce,  than  to  any  of  the  preceding. 
The  evidence  for  the  antiquity  of  this  relic  is  presented  by 
Whitney  in  the  following  affidavit  t11 

Sonora,  Tuolumne  County,  California, 

December  28th,  1870. 

"This  is  to  certify  that  I,  the  undersigned,  have  this  day  given 
to  Mr.  C.  D.  Voy,  to  be  preserved  in  his  collection  of  ancient  stone 
relics,  a  certain  stone  mortar,  which  has  evidently  been  made  by 
human  hands,  which  was  dug  up  by  me,  about  the  year  1862, 
under  Table  Mountain,  in  gravel,  at  a  depth  of  about  200  feet 
from  the  surface,  under  the  basalt,  which  was  over  sixty  feet  deep, 
and  about  1,800  feet  in  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel.  Found  in 
the  claim  known  as  the  Boston  Tunnel  Company.  In  these  claims 
at  various  times  there  have  also  been  found  numerous  bones  of 

different  animals. ' ' 

(Signed)     LLEWELLYN  PIERCE. 

The  label  accompanying  this  specimen,  which  is  No.  612  of 
Voy's  coll.  (1-4209),  places  the  depth  from  the  surface  at  340 
feet,  140  feet  of  which  is  said  to  have  been  basalt. 

Mr.  Pierce,  who  resides  about  a  mile  above  Jeffersonville, 
Tuolumne  Co.,  was  interviewed  by  the  writer.  During  the  course 
of  this  interview  the  following  information  was  furnished  by 
Mr.  Pierce.  The  mortar  from  the  Boston  claim  was  as  large  as  a 
sixteen-gallon  milk  bucket  and  would  weigh  about  seventy-five 
pounds.  It  was  found  in  hard  gravel  under  the  cement,  and  was 
taken  out  by  Mr.  Pierce  while  he  was  sitting  on  a  candle  box, 
breasting  out  gravel.  The  writer  was  shown  a  small  oval  tablet 
of  dark  colored  slate  with  a  melon  and  leaf  carved  in  bas-relief. 
Mr.  Pierce  claimed  to  have  found  this  in  the  same  gravels  as  the 
mortar,  and,  he  thought,  probably  at  the  same  time.  This  tablet 

"Aurif.  Grav.  p.  266. 

12  Figured  by  Holmes,  loc.  cit.  Am.  Anth.,  PI.  VII. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       117 

shows  no  signs  of  wear  by  gravel.  The  scratches  are  all  recent 
defacements.  The  carving  shows  very  evident  traces  of  a  steel 
knife  blade  and  was  conceived  and  executed  by  an  artist  of  con- 
siderable ability.  The  mortar  preserved  in  Voy's  collection  is 
an  oval  boulder  of  hornblende  andesite  into  which  a  hole  has  been 
worked,  about  four  and  three-quarters  inches  in  greatest  width, 
and  three  and  three-quarters  inches  deep,  dimensions  to  which 
those  of  a  sixteen-gallon  bucket  must  be  regarded  as  rather  a 
liberal  approximation.  The  deep  gravels  in  the  bottom  of  the 
Table  Mountain  channels,  tapped  by  the  Boston  Tunnel  and  other 
workings,  are  largely  inaccessible,  but  so  far  as  known  are  not 
volcanic.13  The  incongruity  of  associating  an  andesitic  mortar 
and  a  tablet  engraved  by  steel  tools,  with  the  old  prevolcanic 
gravels  is  at  once  apparent.  The  andesitic  sands  and  gravels  of 
Table  Mountain  lie  above  the  auriferous  channel  gravels  in  which 
these  relics  were  supposed  to  occur. 

The  Neale  Discoveries. — Considerable  information  has  been 
gathered  by  Becker1*  and  Holmes15  regarding  the  reported  dis- 
covery of  implements  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Neale  of  Sonora,  in  the  Monte- 
zuma  Mine.  It  is  desired  here  to  compare  these  published  state- 
ments with  the  story  as  told  to  the  writer  by  Mr.  Neale,  and  with 
the  testimony  of  the  locality.  It  will  be  necessary  to  quote  at 
some  length  from  the  paper  referred  to.  The  affidavit  published 
by  Dr.  Becker  is  as  follows : 

Sonora,  August  2,  1890. 

"In  1877  Mr.  J.  H.  Neale  was  superintendent  of  the  Monte- 
zuma  Tunnel  Company,  and  ran  the  Montezuma  tunnel  into  the 
gravel  underlying  the  lava  of  Table  Mountain,  Tuolumne  County. 
The  mouth  of  the  tunnel  is  near  the  road  which  leads  in  a  souther- 
ly direction  from  the  Rawhide  Camp,  and  about  three  miles  from 
that  place.  The  mouth  is  approximately  1,200  feet  from  the 
present  edge  of  the  solid  lava  cap  of  the  mountain.  The  course 
of  the  tunnel  is  a  little  north  of  east.  At  a  distance  of  between 
1400  and  1500  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  or  of  between 
200  and  300  feet  beyond  the  edge  of  the  solid  lava,  Mr.  Neale  saw 


"  Turner  and  Eansome,  Sonora  Folio.     Explanatory  text. 
14  Becker.     Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  Am.  Vol.  2,  p.  191. 
"  Holmes.     Smithsonian  Eept.  for  1899,  p.  450. 


118          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

several  spear-heads,  of  some  dark  rock  and  nearly  one  foot  in 
length.  On  exploring  further,  he  himself  found  a  small  mortar 
three  or  four  inches  in  diameter  and  of  irregular  shape.  This 
was  discovered  within  a  foot  or  two  of  the  spear-heads.  He  then 
found  a  large  well-formed  pestle,  now  the  property  of  Dr.  R.  I. 
Bromley,  and  near  by  a  large  and  very  regular  mortar,  also  at 
present  the  property  of  Dr.  Bromley. 

' '  All  of  these  relics  were  found  the  same  afternoon,  and  were 
within  a  few  feet  of  one  another  and  close  to  the  bed-rock,  perhaps 
within  a  foot  of  it. 

"Mr.  Neale  declares  it  utterly  impossible  that  these  relics  can 
have  reached  the  position  in  which  they  were  found  excepting 
at  the  time  the  gravel  was  deposited,  and  before  the  lava  cap 
formed.  There  was  not  the  slightest  trace  of  any  disturbance  of 
the  mass  or  of  any  natural  fissure  into  it  by  which  access  could 
have  been  obtained  either  there  or  in  the  neighborhood. 

"And  Mr.  J.  H.  Neale  declares  upon  his  oath  that  the  fore- 
going statement  is  in  every  respect  true. ' ' 

(Signed)  JOHN  H.  NEALE. 

With  this  should  be  compared  the  statement  published  by 
Holmes : 

' '  One  of  the  miners  coming  out  to  lunch  at  noon  brought  with 
him  to  the  superintendent's  office  a  stone  mortar  and  a  broken 
pestle  which  he  said  had  been  dug  up  in  the  deepest  part  of  the 
tunnel,  some  1500  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  mine.  Mr.  Neale 
advised  him  on  returning  to  wrork  to  look  out  for  other  utensils 
in  the  same  place,  and  agreeable  to  his  expectations  two  others 
were  secured,  a  small  ovoid  mortar,  5  or  6  inches  in  diameter,  and 
a  flattish  mortar  or  dish,  7  or  8  inches  in  diameter.  These  have 
since  been  lost  to  sight.  On  another  occasion  a  lot  of  obsidian 
blades,  or  spear-heads,  eleven  in  number  and  averaging  10  inches 
in  length,  were  brought  to  him  by  workmen  from  the  mine.  They 
had  been  found  in  what  Mr.  Neale  called  a  '  side  channel, '  that  is, 
the  bed  of  a  branch  of  the  main  Tertiary  stream  about  a  thousand 
feet  in  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  and  200  or  300  feet  verti- 
cally from  the  surface  of  the  mountain  slope.  These  measure- 
ments were  given  as  estimates  only,  but  at  the  same  time  they 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       119 

were,  he  felt  sure,  not  far  wrong.  Four  or  five  of  the  specimens 
he  gave  to  Mr.  C.  D.  Voy,  the  collector.  The  others  also  had  been 
given  away  but  all  trace  of  them  had  been  lost.  Mr.  Neale  spoke 
enthusiastically  of  the  size  and  perfection  of  these  implements, 
and  as  he  spoke  drew  outlines  of  long  notched  blades  in  the  dust 
at  our  feet.  Some  had  one  notch,  some  had  two  notches,  and 
others  were  plain  leaf-shaped  blades. ' ' 

"Desiring  to  find  out  more  concerning  these  objects,  he  went 
on  to  say,  he  showed  them  to  the  Indians  who  chanced  to  be 
present,  but,  strangely  enough,  they  expressed  great  fear  of  them, 
refusing  to  touch  them  or  even  speak  about  them;  but  finally, 
when  asked  whether  they  had  any  idea  whence  they  came,  said 
they  had  seen  such  implements  far  away  in  the  mountains,  but 
declined  to  speak  of  the  place  further  or  to  undertake  to  procure 
others." 

The  following  statements  by  Mr.  Neale  regarding  the  dis- 
covery of  these  implements  were  taken  down  by  the  writer  in  the 
course  of  the  interview:  A  certain  miner  (Joe),  working  on  the 
day  shift  in  the  Montezuma  tunnel,  brought  out  a  stone  dish  or 
platter  about  two  inches  thick.  Joe  was  advised  to  look  for  more 
in  the  same  place.  At  the  time,  they  were  working  in  caving 
ground.  Mr.  Neale  went  on  the  night  shift  and  in  excavating  to 
set  a  timber,  '  hooked  up '  one  of  the  obsidian  spear  points.  With 
the  exception  of  the  one  brought  out  by  Joe,  all  the  implements 
were  found  personally  by  Mr.  Neale,  at  one  time,  in  a  space  about 
six  feet  in  diameter  on  the  shore  of  the  channel.  The  implements 
were  in  gravel  close  to  the  bed-rock  and  were  mixed  with  a  sub- 
stance like  charcoal. 

The  large  pestle  and  mortar  mentioned  by  Becker  are  in  the 
United  States  National  Museum.  The  material  of  the  mortar  is 
andesite. 

The  geological  conditions  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Montezuma 
mine  are  similar  to  those  at  other  points  along  Table  Mountain. 
The  detrital  deposits  beneath  the  latite  are  not  well  exposed,  but 
wherever  seen  are  found  to  be  andesitic  breccias,  gravels,  sands, 
and  pipe  clay.  The  deep  gravels  lying  in  the  center  of  the 
channel  are  believed  to  be  prevolcanic,  so  that  there  is  involved 
the  anomaly  of  two  late  volcanic  rock  types,  andesite  and  ob- 
sidian, occurring  in  the  prevolcanic  gravels. 


120          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

The  mouth  of  the  Montezuma  tunnel  lies  below  the  road  lead- 
ing south  from  Rawhide  and  as  well  as  can  be  ascertained  by 
rough  measurements  is  about  thirteen  hundred  and  ninety  feet 
from  the  base  of  the  latite  cliff,  measured  along  the  irregularities 
of  the  slope  from  the  cliff  to  the  mine.  According  to  some  ac- 
counts, it  was  intended  as  a  drainage  tunnel  for  the  placer  mines 
at  Montezuma  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountain.  Both  the  old 
tunnel  and  the  new  one  mentioned  by  Holmes16  were  found  caved 
in  and  abandoned.  There  was  every  indication  of  a  former  In- 
dian camp  site  in  this  vicinity.  Half  an  hour 's  search  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  a  pestle  and  a  flat  stone  muller,  a  few  yards  north 
of  the  mine  buildings.  Similar  discoveries  were  reported  by 
Holmes.  South  of  the  tunnel,  a  large  permanent  mortar  was 
found.  The  material  of  this  mortar  block  is  latite  from  the  cliff 
above.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  implements  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Neale  came  from  this  Indian  camp  site. 

The  McTarnahan  Mortar. — In  the  discussion  of  Dr.  Becker's 
paper,  Rev.  G.  Frederic  Wright  mentioned  the  discovery  of  a 
mortar  reported  to  him  by  Mr.  C.  McTarnahan,  as  follows:* 

"The  discovery  was  made  in  October,  1887,  in  the  Empire 
mine.  .  .  .  This  mine  is  on  the  western  side  of  Table  Moun- 
tain. .  .  .  This  mine  lies  nearly  westward  from  Shaw's  Flat, 
and,  from  the  opening,  penetrates  the  rim  underneath  Table 
Mountain  a  distance  of  742  feet.  Mr.  McTarnahan  himself  found 
the  mortar  in  the  gravel,  as  work  was  proceeding,  500  feet  from 
the  outside  of  the  rim,  which,  from  the  direction  of  the  drift, 
would  make  it  200  feet  from  the  apex  of  the  rim  under  the  surface 
of  the  basalt.  He  described  the  mortar  as  a  granite  boulder  about 
eight  inches  in  diameter,  and  the  hollow  four  inches  in  diameter 
at  the  surface  and  three  inches  deep."  Mr.  Frank  McTarnahan, 
who  resides  not  far  from  the  Empire  mine,  was  interviewed  by 
the  writer  regarding  this  relic.  Both  he  and  Mr.  Charles  Mc- 
Tarnahan, his  brother,  worked  in  the  mine  together.  The  only 
mortar  found  was  discovered  back  of  the  lagging  during  the  work 
of  retimbering.  The  mine  had  been  idle  at  least  two  years  before 
the  McTarnahans  began  work.  The  mortar  was  not  in  the  gravels, 
but  thrust  in  back  of  the  lagging,  as  large  pieces  of  rock  and 


16Loc.  cit.  p.  451. 

*  Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  Amer.,  Vol.  2,  p.  199. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       121 

boulders  commonly  are  used  to  fill  up  space  room  between  the 
timbers  and  the  wall.  It  is  evident  that  an  implement  lying  loose 
behind  the  timbering  of  an  old  mine  can  not  be  accepted  as 
indicating  great  antiquity. 

Implements  from  the  Marshall  Mine. — Human  relics  are  re- 
ported by  Whitney  from  the  Marshall  mine  near  San  Andreas, 
Calaveras  County.  The  published  statement17  is  in  the  form  of 
an  affidavit,  as  follows : 

San  Andreas,  Calaveras  County,  California, 

January  3rd,  1871. 

' '  This  is  to  certify  that  we,  the  undersigned,  proprietors  of  the 
gravel  claims  known  as  Marshall  &  Company's,  situated  near  the 
town  of  San  Andreas,  do  know  of  stone  mortars  and  other  stone 
relics,  which  had  evidently  been  made  by  human  hands,  being 
found  in  these  claims,  about  the  years  1860  and  1869,  under  about 
these  different  formations : 

1.  Coarse  gravel  5  feet 

2.  Sand  and  gravel  100  feet 

3.  Brown  gravel   20  feet 

4.  "Cement"    sand   4  feet 

5.  Bluish  volcanic  sand  15  feet 

6.  Pay  gravel 6  feet 

150  feet 
The  above  (mentioned  relics)  were  found  in  bed  No.  6." 

(Signed)  R.  D.  HUBBARD, 

JOHN  SHOW  ALTER. 

The  writer  visited  this  locality  and  talked  with  Mr.  J.  C. 
Marshall,  who  was  a  part  owner  in  the  mine  with  Hubbard  and 
Showalter.  The  mine  is  situated  on  the  top  of  a  hill  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  northwest  of  the  Calaveras  County  Hospital  in  the 
outskirts  of  San  Andreas.  The  hill  is  capped  by  a  gravel  of  the 
inter-volcanic  epoch,  partly  overlain  on  the  southwest  side  by  a 
small  area  of  andesitic  breccia.  There  are  no  outcrops  of  rhyolite 
tuff  visible,  but  the  tuff  appears  on  many  of  the  old  mine  dumps 
and  is  probably  the  "bluish  volcanic  sand"  of  the  section.  The 
pay  gravels  are  probably  inter-rhyolitic. 

"Aurif.  Grav.  p.  274. 


122          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

According  to  Mr.  Marshall,  the  implements  were  found  by 
hired  men  at  the  time  when  he  was  employed  as  mine  boss.  He 
claimed  to  have  seen  them  in  place  in  the  pay  gravels  close  to  the 
bed-rock.  One  of  the  mortars  had  several  holes  in  it  and  would 
weigh,  he  thought,  two  or  three  hundred  pounds.  It  was  too 
heavy  to  hoist  out  by  the  whim  and  was  left  in  the  drift.  He  did 
not  remember  how  far  they  were  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft 
from  which  the  drift  started.  The  workings  have  caved  in  and 
are  inaccessible. 

On  the  top  of  the  hill,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  old 
Marshall  shaft,  there  are  several  large  blocks  of  quartz  and  gra- 
nodiorite  with  one  or  more  mortar  holes  worked  in  each.  At 
least  one  of  the  mortars  from  the  Marshall  mine  was  of  this  recent 
type,  although  said  to  occur  beneath  the  rhyolite  tuff.  There  are 
a  number  of  old  shafts  on  the  hill,  all  more  or  less  caved  in,  so 
that  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  implements,  and  especially  the 
large  permanent  mortar  fell  down  one  of  these  shafts,  to  be  after- 
ward struck  by  the  Marshall  drift. 

The  Clay  Hill  Skeleton. — The  discovery  of  a  human  skeleton 
in  the  gravels  on  Clay  Hill,  in  the  vicinity  of  Placerville,  Eldo- 
rado County,  is  vouched  for  by  Dr.  H.  H.  Boyce.  The  following 
extract  is  from  a  letter  by  Dr.  Boyce  published  by  Whitney : 

' '  Clay  Hill  is  one  of  a  series  of  elevations  which  constitute  the 
water-shed  between  Placerville  Creek  and  Big  Canon,  and  is 
capped  by  a  stratum  of  basaltic  lava,  some  eight  feet  thick.  Be- 
neath this  there  are  some  thirty  feet  of  sand,  gravel  and  clay. 
The  country-rock  is  slightly  capped  on  this,  as  on  most  of  the 
elevations,  the  slope  being  toward  the  center  of  the  hill.  Resting 
on  the  rock  and  extending  about  two  feet  above  it,  was  a  dense 
stratum  of  clay.  It  was  in  this  clay  that  we  came  across  the 
bones.  While  emptying  the  tub,  I  saw  some  pieces  of  material 
which  on  examination  I  discovered  were  pieces  of  bones ;  and,  on 
further  search,  I  found  the  scapula,  clavicle,  and  parts  of  the 
first,  second  and  third  ribs  of  the  right  side  of  a  human  skeleton. 
They  were  quite  firmly  cemented  together ;  but  on  exposure  to  the 
air  began  to  crumble. ' ' 

On  examination  the  geological  features  of  Clay  Hill  were 
found  by  the  writer  to  differ  in  several  respects  from  the  above  de- 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       123 

scription.  No  basalt  capping  appeared  either  on  the  hill  or  any- 
where in  the  vicinity.  There  is  a  small  area  of  andesitic  breccia 
on  the  top  of  the  hill,  but  this  is  not  very  well  exposed  in  the  sec- 
tions afforded  by  the  old  placer  mines.  Most  of  the  hill  is  capped 
by  an  andesitic  gravel,  beneath  which  there  is,  in  some  places,  a 
light  gray  tuffaceous  sand,  containing  frequent  small  andesite 
pebbles.  The  pay  gravels  beneath  the  sand  are  not  remarkably 
quartzose  and  seem  to  grade  into  the  andesitic  material  above 
mentioned.  The  lithology  of  the  gravels  resting  on  bedrock  can 
not  be  satisfactorily  studied  owing  to  the  heavy  talus  slopes.  For 
this  reason  the  position  of  the  clay  supposed  to  contain  the  bones 
can  not  be  confirmed. 

The  impression  conveyed  by  the  part  of  the  letter  quoted  is 
that  the  skeleton  found  by  Dr.  Boyce  was  at  a  depth  of  thirty- 
eight  feet,  in  undisturbed  strata  under  eight  feet  of  so-called 
basalt.  There  is  nothing,  however,  in  the  letter  to  show  that  this 
was  the  section  passed  through  in  sinking  the  Boyce  shaft.  The 
skeleton  may  have  been  found  in  such  a  place  and  at  such  a  depth 
in  the  clay  that  the  possibility  of  recent  interment  would  have 
to  be  considered.  As  the  evidence  is  presented,  we  are  not  justi- 
fied in  regarding  the  skeleton  from  Clay  Hill  as  of  great  an- 
tiquity. 

The  Calaveras  Skull. — The  history  of  this  famous  relic  is  so 
well  known  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  repeat  at  length  the  details 
regarding  it.  The  nature  of  the  matrix  and  filling  of  the  skull 
present  evidence  of  a  geological  nature  sufficient  to  settle  once 
for  all  that  it  did  not  come  from  the  gravel  as  had  been  supposed. 

The  skull  first  came  into  prominence  in  1866  when  it  was  for- 
warded by  Dr.  Jones  to  the  office  of  the  state  geologist  in  San 
Francisco.  Regarding  its  discovery  by  Mr.  Mattison  and  its 
subsequent  history,  Whitney  made  the  following  statement  :* 

"Mr.  Mattison,  on  being  questioned,  stated  that  he  took  the 
skull  from  his  shaft  in  February,  1866,  with  some  pieces  of  wood 
found  near  it,  and,  supposing  that  it  might  be  something  of  in- 
terest, carried  it  in  a  bag  to  the  office  of  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.  's  Ex- 
press, at  Angels,  and  gave  it  to  Mr.  Scribner,  the  agent. 

"Mr.  Scribner 's  clerk  cleaned  off  a  portion  of  the  encrusting 

*  Aurif .  Grav.,  p.  268. 


124          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

material,  discovered  that  the  article  in  question  was  a  human 
skull,  and,  shortly  after,  gave  it  to  Dr.  Jones,  ....  and  in 
his  possession  it  remained  for  some  months  before  it  was  placed  in 
the  writer 's  hands. ' ' 

Bald  Hill  (plate  13)  is  a  rather  prominent  hill  rising  a  little 
more  than  one  hundred  feet  above  its  base.  It  forms  part  of 
a  ridge  extending  about  half  a  mile  toward  the  northeast,  where 
it  merges  with  a  table-like  expanse  capped  by  an  andesite  flow. 
The  top  of  the  entire  ridge  to  the  contact  with  the  andesite 
is  occupied  by  a  mass  of  gravel  containing  andesite  pebbles  as 
well  as  numerous  pebbles  of  vein  quartz,  quartzite,  granodiorite, 
various  porphy rites,  etc.  Beneath  these  gravels  are  rhyolite 
tuffs,  shown  in  the  photograph,  on  the  lower  slopes,  as  white 
patches  among  the  trees.  The  upper  gravels  lie  unconformably 
on  the  tuff,  occupying  depressions  eroded  in  the  latter.  To  the 
northeast,  they  disappear  beneath  the  andesite  flow.  These  par- 
ticulars can  be  gained,  in  part  only,  from  the  Jackson  Folio  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey  Atlas,  which  does  not  show 
the  gravels  lying  above  the  rhyolite.  These  upper  gravels  be- 
long to  the  intervolcanic  epoch.  They  are  thoroughly  water- 
worn. 

The  pay  gravel  which  has  been  worked  by  various  cuts,  shafts 
and  tunnels  lies  beneath  the  rhyolite  tuff,  and  may  be  seen  in 
place  in  the  walls  of  a  cut  at  the  southwest  end  of  the  hill.  The 
pebbles  are  largely  quartz,  amphibolite  and  schists  of  the  Cala- 
veras  formation  with  an  occasional  porphyrite,  and  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  quartz  are  quite  thoroughly  decomposed.  They 
are  inclosed  in  a  fine  clayey  matrix  composed  largely  of  rhyolitic 
ash.  In  color  they  are  a  pale  greenish  tint.  These  gravels  be- 
long to  the  rhyolitic  epoch.  They  are  exposed  in  the  cut  to  a 
thickness  of  about  a  foot.  Bedrock  may  be  seen  a  few  yards  to 
the  southwest,  but  the  contact  of  the  gravel  with  the  bedrock  is 
concealed  in  the  cut  by  mine  dump  and  talus.  There  is  no  trace 
of  calcareous  or  ferruginous  cementation.  The  pebbles  are  flat- 
ter than  those  of  the  upper  gravel,  but  are  equally  water-worn. 

The  following  section  is  given  by  Whitney,18  as  that  passed 
through  by  Mattison  in  sinking  the  shaft  on  Bald  Hill : 


"Aurif.  Grav.  p.  269. 


*"     fl 

S-'S 
-  & 


« 


88     2 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       125 

1.  Black  lava  40  feet 

2.  Gravel  3  Teet 

3.  Light  lava  30  feet 

4.  Gravel    5  feet 

5.  Light  lava  15  feet 

6.  Gravel    25  feet 

7.  Dark  brown  lava  9  feet 

8.  Gravel  5  feet 

9.  Eed  lava  4  feet 

10.  Eed  gravel   17  feet 


Total   153  feet 

The  various  "lavas"  are  difficult  to  identify,  and  are  prob- 
ably not  correctly  determined.  The  "black  lava"  is  a  rhyolite 
darker  in  color  and  harder  than  the  common  white  tuff.  The 
shaft  was  started  in  this  rock  a  few  feet  below  the  contact  of  the 
rhyolite  tuff  and  the  overlying  gravels.  The  skull  is  said  to  have 
been  found  ' '  in  bed  No.  8,  just  above  the  lowest  stratum  of  lava. ' ' 

The  matrix  of  the  skull  is  described  by  Whitney10  as  follows : 

"When  delivered  into  the  writer's  hands  its  base  was  im- 
bedded in  a  conglomerate  mass  of  ferruginous  earth,  water-worn 
pebbles  of  much  altered  volcanic  rock,  calcareous  tufa,  and  frag- 
ments of  bones.  This  mixed  material  covered  the  whole  base  of 
the  skull  and  filled  the  left  temporal  fossa,  concealing  the  whole 
of  the  jaw.  A  thin  calcareous  incrustation  appears  to  have  cov- 
ered the  whole  skull  when  found ;  portions  of  it  had  been  scaled 
off,  probably  in  cleaning  away  the  other  material  attached  to  the 
base. 

"Nothing  was  done  to  the  skull  to  alter  its  condition  in  any 
way,  after  it  came  into  the  writer's  hands,  until  it  had  been 
examined  by  Dr.  Wyman,  when  we  together  carefully  chiselled 
off  the  foreign  matter  adhering  to  its  base 

"In  cutting  away  the  mixed  tufa  and  gravel  which  covered 
the  face  and  base,  several  fragments  of  human  bones  were  re- 
moved; namely  one  whole  and  one  broken  metatarsal;  the  lower 
end  of  a  left  fibula,  and  fragments  of  an  ulna,  as  well  as  a  piece 
of  a  sternum.  These  bones  and  fragments  of  bone  might  have 
belonged  to  the  same  individual  to  whom  the  skull  had  apper- 
tained ;  but,  besides  these,  there  was  a  portion  of  a  human  tibia 

"Aurif.  Grav.  p.  268. 


126          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

of  too  small  size  to  be  referred  to  the  same  person.  There  were 
also  some  fragments  of  the  bones  of  a  small  mammal.  Under 
the  malar  bone  of  the  left  side  a  small  snail  shell  was  lodged, 
partially  concealed  by  one  of  the  small  human  bones  which  was 
wedged  into  the  cavity.  This  shell  was  recognized  by  Dr.  J.  G. 
Cooper  as  Helix  mormonum,  a  species  now  existing  in  the  Sierra 
Nevada.  Cemented  to  the  fore  part  of  the  roof  of  the  mouth 
was  found  a  circular  piece  of  shell  four  tenths  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  with  a  hole  drilled  through  the  center,  which  had  prob- 
ably served  as  an  ornament.  Several  very  small  pieces  of  char- 
coal were  also  found  in  the  matter  adhering  to  the  face  of  the 
skull." 

Through  the  kindness  of  Professor  F.  W.  Putnam  of  Har- 
vard University,  the  writer  has  been  able  to  examine  a  portion  of 
the  gravel  removed  by  Professor  Wyman  from  the  skull,  and  also 
the  skull  itself.  Both  gravel  and  skull  still  bear  traces  of  the  wax 
with  which  the  latter  was  coated  as  a  preservative.  The  matrix 
is  not  strictly  speaking  a  gravel  nor  does  it  show  any  trace  of 
wear  or  rounding  by  stream  action.  It  is  composed  of  angular 
fragments  of  white  marble  (dolomite),  decomposed  diabase,  am- 
phibolite  and  white  vein  quartz  cemented  by  a  ferruginous  cal- 
careous deposit.  Small  masses  of  limonite  and  ochreous  clay  are 
present  in  vacuities  in  the  stalagmite.  Small  grains  of  hematite 
were  also  detected.  Fragments  of  charcoal  and  small  portions 
of  the  shell  of  a  land  snail  adhere  to  the  stalagmite.  The  ma- 
terial is  dissimilar  in  every  respect  to  either  of  the  gravels  ex- 
posed on  Bald  Hill.  In  every  respect  it  is  comparable  to  a  cave 
breccia.  The  association  of  rock  species  and  the  stalagmitic  ce- 
mentation is  the  same  as  that  found  in  the  breccias  on  the  floors 
of  many  caves  in  Calaveras  county  which  the  writer  has  exam- 
ined. The  lack  of  agreement  between  the  gravels  on  Bald  Hill 
and  the  matrix  of  the  skull  effectually  establishes  the  fact  that 
the  skull  was  not  obtained  in  place,  as  claimed,  in  the  gravels 
beneath  the  rhyolite,  or  from  any  other  gravel  of  the  rhyolitic 
epoch.  None  of  these  gravels  exhibit  any  trace  of  stalagmitic 
cementation. 

The  cave  origin  of  the  skull  is  strengthened  by  the  animal 
remains  and  works  of  art  associated  with  it.  In  addition  to  the 


UNIV.   CALIF.    PUBL.   AM.   ARCH,    ETHN. 


VOL.   7   PL   14 


Mortuary  rhainlier  in  a  cave  above  Cave  City,  Calaveras  County.    The  remains 
of  several  individuals  arc  shown.      (Flashlight.) 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       127 

bones  of  a  smaller  human  individual,  there  was  with  the  skull  a 
shell  bead  and  the  bones  of  a  small  mammal.  Imbedded  in  the 
stalagmite  investing  fragments  of  the  breccia  received  from  Pro- 
fessor Putnam,  the  writer  found  the  incisor  tooth  of  some  small 
mammal,  possibly  a  bat  or  a  mole,  and  an  amphicoelous  vertebra 
of  a  small  amphibian.  This  material  is  not  complete  enough  for 
generic  determination,  but  there  is  no  reason  for  regarding  the 
remains  as  those  of  extinct  forms.  The  shell  bead  has  been  ex- 
amined by  several  archaeologists,  who  state  that  it  is  similar  to 
those  found  on  many  Indian  sites  of  the  coast  region  of  California. 

The  scarcity  of  vertebrate  fossils  in  the  auriferous  gravels  is 
well  known  to  all  geologists  familiar  with  these  deposits.  The 
abundance  of  bones,  human  and  animal,  associated  with  the  skull 
is  remarkable  in  the  light  of  the  supposed  career  depicted  by 
Whitney  for  this  relic  before  it  was  finally  imbedded  in  the  grav- 
els of  a  Neocene  river.*  The  effect  of  even  a  moderate  amount 
of  stream  action  would  be  to  scatter  rather  than  to  collect  the 
various  parts  of  a  skeleton.  The  smaller  bones  would  inevitably 
be  ground  to  powder.  The  larger  bones  should  show  traces  of 
abrasion  rather  than  fresh  fracture  as  is  the  case. 

The  caves  of  Calaveras  County  present  conditions  similar  to 
those  indicated  by  the  matrix  and  remains  associated  with  the 
Calaveras  skull.  Many  of  them  have  served  as  Indian  mor- 
tuaries. A  good  illustration  of  one  of  these  will  be  found  on 
plate  14.  A  heterogeneous  mixture  of  human  remains  similar  to 
that  shown  in  this  photograph  would  account  for  the  association 
of  the  bones  of  two  individuals  with  the  skull.  The  human  bones 
found  in  these  caves  are  often  coated  with  stalagmite  and  have 
lost  the  greater  part  of  their  organic  matter.  Animal  remains  are 
commonly  present  in  the  earth  and  breccia  on  the  cave  floors. 
Shells  of  Epiphragmophora  (Helix}  are  almost  always  present. 

It  is  supposed  by  some  that  the  Calaveras  skull  came  original- 
ly from  Salt  Spring  Valley.  Holmes20  states  on  the  authority  of 
Mr.  George  Stickle  of  Angels,  that  the  skull,  together  with  a  com- 
panion specimen,  had  been  placed  on  exhibition  in  Stickle 's  store 
by  Dr.  J.  I.  Boone,  who  obtained  it  in  an  Indian  burial  ground 


*Aurif.  Grav.  p.  272. 

20  Smithsonian  Kept.,  1899;  Am.  Anth.,  p.  634. 


128          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am,  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

in  Salt  Spring  Valley.  There  are  no  deposits  in  the  Valley  re- 
sembling the  matrix  of  the  skull.  On  the  Tower-Bisbee  ranch 
there  are  yellow  gravels  containing  subangular  and  also  well 
rounded  pebbles  derived  from  the  rocks  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
(diabase,  porphyrite,  amphibolite  and  slate).  More  or  less  fer- 
ruginous cementation  has  taken  place.  These  gravels  are  either 
very  late  Pleistocene  or  recent.  No  fragments  of  marble  wrere 
found  in  any  of  these  deposits,  nor  are  any  limestones  mapped21 
in  this  vicinity. 

Most  of  those  who  regard  Salt  Spring  Valley  as  the  place  of 
origin  of  the  skull,  agree  in  stating  that  it  was  found  in  Dead 
Man  Spring.  This  is  a  large  boggy  hole  from  which  between 
thirty  and  forty  human  skulls  were  taken  by  Mr.  Hetic  in  1854. 
The  spring  waters  are  largely  alkaline.  The  mud  filling  the 
spring  is  black,  deriving  its  color  from  decomposing  vegetable 
matter.  The  soil  about  the  spring  where  not  in  contact  with  the 
water,  is  red  and  contains  angular  fragments  of  amphibolite  and 
vein  quartz.  The  bones  were  imbedded  in  the  spring  mud  and  are 
described  by  Mr.  Hetic  as  black.  South  of  Dead  Man  Spring 
there  is  another  alkaline  spring  in  the  vicinity  of  which  angular 
blocks  of  quartz  and  amphibolite  are  coated  with  a  small  amount 
of  calcareous  tufa  inclosing  fragments  of  the  same  rocks. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  the  present  paper  to  determine  certainly 
the  original  place  of  burial  of  the  skull.*  The  writer  has  re- 

21  Jackson  Folio,  U.  S.  G.  S.  Atlas. 

*  The  following  note  which  Professor  Putnam  has  kindly  furnished, 
brings  out  particularly  the  fact  that  the  Calaveras  skull  described  by  Whit- 
ney is  not  certainly  to  be  identified  with  any  of  the  skulls  which  may  have 
been  used  in  attempts  to  deceive  Mr.  Mattison  or  others: 

"In  1897  the  'Calaveras  Skull'  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Peabody 
Museum  from  the  estate  of  Professor  Whitney,  who  had  expressed  the  wish 
that  the  skull,  with  all  the  material  pertaining  to  it,  should  be  given  to  the 
Peabody  Museum  for  permanent  preservation.  I  soon  realized  the  import- 
ance of  making  a  comparison  of  the  matrix  taken  from  the  skull  by  Profes- 
sors Whitney  and  Wyman  with  the  gravel  from  the  Mattison  shaft.  At  my 
request,  early  in  September  1900,  Professor  Eichard  E.  Dodge  visited  Bald 
Hill  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  gravel  from  the  layer  in  which  the  skull 
was  said  to  have  been  taken  by  Mattison,  but  the  shaft  was  full  of  water 
and  the  gravel  could  not  be  obtained.  Mr.  Dodge  heard  several  stories  re- 
lating to  the  skull  such  as  those  that  have  been  reported  by  Professor  Holmes 
and  Mr.  Sinclair. 

' '  On  September  26-29,  1900,  I  was  in  Angels  with  the  hope  of  making  ar- 
rangements to  have  the  water  pumped  from  the  shaft,  but  i  soon  found  out 
that  even  if  this  were  possible  it  would  be  a  very  long  and  expensive  opera- 
tion and  I  therefore  abandoned  the  attempt.  While  making  my  examination 
on  Bald  Hill  I  secured  the  assistance  of  a  Mr.  Lee,  who  had  been  employed 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.       129 

ceived  a  letter  from  Rev.  W.  H.  Dyer  of  Los  Angeles  inclosing 
a  clipping  from  the  ' '  Tuolumne  Independent ' '  of  September  14th, 
1901,  in  which  it  is  stated,  over  Mr.  Dyer's  signature,  that  he  was 
in  Scribner's  store  in  Angels,  "probably  near  the  year  1876  and 
found  Dr.  Walker  and  Mr.  Scribner  and  another  whose  coming, 
after  long  absence,  brought  the  three  old  friends  together  .  . 
Prominent  in  interest  was  the  story  of  the  skull,  which  they  had 
planted  deep  in  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  where  it  astonished  the 
miner,  the  curious  public  and  the  wondering  scientists. ' '  In  his 
letter.  Mr.  Dyer  states  that  he  has  received  a  communication  from 
Mrs.  Jamison,  the  sister  of  John  C.  Scribner,  now  living  in  Tarry- 
town,  New  York,  to  the  effect  "that  they  have  long  known  as  a 
joke  of  his,  the  planting  of  a  skull  in  a  mine." 

NEGATIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  A  GENERAL  CHARACTER. 

The  occurrence  in  the  older  auriferous  gravels  of  human  re- 
mains indicative  of  a  state  of  culture  and  a  degree  of  physical 


on  the  latest  working  of  the  shaft,  and  he  pointed  out,  on  the  old  dump,  the 
several  layers  of  gravel  through  which  the  shaft  was  sunk,  and  samples  were 
gathered  from  the  different  portions  of  the  dump. 

"Again  in  September,  1901,  I  visited  the  place  with  Professor  Merriam, 
but  the  water  still  prevented  our  entering  the  shaft.  While  at  Angels  and 
at  Murphys  I  heard  many  stories,  from  various  persons,  and  received  several 
letters,  to  the  general  effect  that  a  skull  had  been  placed  in  the  shaft  for 
Mr.  Mattison  to  find.  To  my  mind  the  most  interesting  point  of  these  stories 
is  that  two  and  possibly  three  distinct  skulls  were  brought  into  the  stories. 
One  man  said  the  skull  was  black  and  enclosed  in  black  earth  and  that  it 
came  from  Salt  Springs  valley,  where  a  dozen  or  more  were  found.  Mr. 
Stickle,  on  the  contrary,  told  me  that  the  skull  was  whole  and  white.  When 
I  showed  Mr.  Stickle  the  photograph  taken  by  Mr.  Rhodes  of  the  skull  that 
Professor  Whitney  received  from  Dr.  Jones  (showing  the  skull  before  the 
matrix  was  removed)  Mr.  Stickle  was  very  emphatic  in  his  statement  that  it 
was  not  the  skull  brought  out  of  the  shaft  by  Mattison. 

' '  It  would  seem  therefore  that  there  is  a  possibility  that  the  skull  given  to 
Dr.  Jones  and  by  him  to  Professor  Whitney  was  never  in  the  shaft.  Had 
it  been  taken  from  the  shaft  there  probably  would  have  been  some  trace  of 
gravel,  such  as  is  found  in  the  beds  through  which  the  shaft  was  sunk,  mixed 
with  the  material  taken  from  the  skull  by  Professors  Whitney  and  Wyman, 
but  no  such  gravel  has  been  found  in  the  several  examinations  which  have 
been  made  of  the  matrix. 

' '  When  all  the  facts  now  known  are  carefully  considered  it  seems  probable 
that  the  skull  which  came  into  Professor  Whitney's  hands,  through  Dr. 
Jones,  was  from  some  cave  or  rock  crevice  in  the  vicinity  of  Bald  Hill,  and 
that,  without  any  attempt  at  deception  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Jones,  and  with- 
out any  intention  on  the  part  of  any  one  to  deceive  the  members  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey,  the  skull  was  sent  to  the  Survey  by  Dr.  Jones  with  the  belief 
that  it  was  the  skull  which,  he  had  been  told,  Mattison  found  in  his  shaft." 

Department  of  Anthropology,  R  W'  PuTNAM- 

University  of  California,  Dec.  5,  1907. 


.130          University  of  California  Publications  in  Am.  Arch,  and  Ethn.     [Vol.  7 

development  equal  to  that  of  the  existing  Indians  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  would  necessitate  placing  the  origin  of  the  human  race 
in  an  exceedingly  remote  geological  period.  This  is  contrary 
to  all  precedent  in  the  history  of  organisms,  which  teaches  that 
mammalian  species  are  short-lived.  In  North  America,  there  are 
abundant  remains  of  the  lower  mammals  preserved  in  deposits 
ranging  from  the  Eocene  to  the  Pleistocene.  In  all  these  de- 
posits, excepting  those  of  late  Pleistocene  age,  the  remains  of 
man  or  any  creature  directly  ancestral  to  man  are  conspicuously 
absent.  No  remains  of  the  Anthropoidea  (from  which  man  is 
doubtless  derived),  are  known  on  this  continent. 

The  age  of  the  gravels  antedating  the  latite  flows  can  not  be 
definitely  fixed  until  their  flora  has  been  studied.  According  to 
Lindgren,23  "the  deep  gravels  are  probably  of  Eocene  or  Eo- 
miocene  age.  The  bench  gravels  and  the  rhyolite  tuffs  are  prob- 
ably of  late  Miocene  age.  The  age  of  the  gravels  of  the  inter- 
volcanic  erosion  epoch  and  of  the  andesite  tuff  is  not  established 
beyond  doubt,  but  these  probably  belong  to  the  early  Oligocene 
or  late  Miocene."  It  has  been  shown  on  the  preceding  pages 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  implements  reported  from  the 
gravels  are  from  those  of  the  rhyolitic  and  intervolcanic  epochs. 
This  would  mean  that  man  of  a  type  as  high  as  the  existing  race 
was  a  contemporary  of  the  three-toed  horse  and  other  primitive 
forms  of  the  late  Miocene  and  early  Pliocene,  a  thesis  to  which 
all  geological  and  biological  evidence  is  opposed.  • 

CONCLUSIONS. 

A  review  of  the  evidence  favoring  the  presence  of  the  remains 
of  man  in  the  auriferous  gravels,  compels  one  to  regard  it  as 
insufficient  to  establish  the  fact.  On  the  preceding  pages,  it  has 
been  shown  either  that  there  have  been  abundant  opportunities 
for  the  relics  in  question  to  be  mixed  with  the  gravels  accidental- 
ly, or  that  the  geological  conditions  at  the  localities  are  such  as  to 
render  it  improbable  that  the  implements  and  bones  have  been 
associated  in  the  gravels  to  the  extent  supposed. 


23  Colfax  Folio,  U.  S.  G.  8.  Atlas.     Descriptive  Text,  pp.  5  and  6. 


1908]     Sinclair. — Neocene  Man  in  Auriferous  Gravels  of  Sierra  Nevada.      131 

PRINCIPAL  PAPERS  ON   THE   OCCURRENCE  OF  EARLY  MAN  IN 
THE  AURIFEROUS  GRAVELS  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

WlNSUHV,  C.  F. 

1856-59 — Letter  on  finding  human  remains  and  those  of  elephant  and 
mastodon  in  California.  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.  VI,  p.  278. 

1857 — On  human  remains  along  with  those  of  the  mastodon  in  the 
drift  of  California.  Am.  Jour.  Sci.  (2)  XLVI,  pp.  407-408. 
Taken  from  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  VI,  1857,  p.  278. 

WHITNEY,  J.  D. 

1868 — Notice  of  a   human   skull   recently   taken  from   a  shaft   near 

Angels,  Calaveras  Co.    Cal.  Acad.  Sci.  Proc.  Vol.  3,  pp.  277,  278. 

Am.  J.  Sci.  2nd  Ser.  Vol.  43,  pp.  265-267,  1867. 
1880 — The  Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  California. 

Mem.  Harvard  Mus.  Comp.  Zool.  Vol.  VI,  1880. 

SKERTCHLEY,  T.  B.  J. 

1888 — On  the  Occurrence  of  Stone  Mortars  in  the  ancient  (Pliocene f) 

River  gravels  of  Butte  County,  California.     Jour.  Anth.  Inst. 
May,  1888. 

BECKER,  GEO.  F. 

1891 — Antiquities  from  under  Tuolunme  Table  Mountain  in  Cali- 
fornia. Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  Amer.  Vol.  2,  pp.  189-200. 

WRIGHT,  GEO.  F. 

1891 — Prehistoric  Man  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  Atlantic  Monthly,  April, 

1891,  pp.  501-513. 
1892 — Discussion  of  Becker's  paper.     Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  Amer.  Vol.  2, 

p.  200.    Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,  pp.  294-297. 

BLAKE,  WM.  P. 

1899 — The  Pliocene  Skull  of  California  and  the  Flint  Implements  of 
Table  Mountain.  Jour,  of  Geol.,  Vol.  7,  pp.  631-637. 

HOLMES,  W.  H. 

1899 — Review  of  the  Evidence  Relating  to  Auriferous  Gravel  Man  in 

California.    American  Anthropologist.    Jan.  and  October. 
1901— Smithsonian  Kept,  for  1899,  pp.  419-472.    Plates  I-XVI. 

HRDLlCKA,  A. 

1907 — Skeletal  Remains  suggesting  or  attributed  to  early  Man  in  North 
America.  Bureau  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  No.  33,  1907,  pp.  21-28,  Plate  I. 

See  also  a  department  circular,  "The  Department  of  Anthropology," 
University  of  California,  1905,  p.  16,  where  a  statement  is  made  of  the 
results  of  studies  in  connection  with  the  Calaveras  skull.  It  was  stated 
that  the  matrix  surrounding  the  skull  is  unlike  the  auriferous  gravel  but 
is  like  material  from  caves. 

Issued  February  15,  1908. 


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